A recent study of data of many missions shows that the red planet can get its name from an iron mineral that was made when Mars was wet, not dry.
Mars has been called The Red Planet for Millennia. But the process that changed its surface is now understanding only. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS
We always know Mars as a red planet – but it turns out, we may have the reason Why Wrong. If yes, it can modify whatever he knows about the history of our small neighbor planet.
In a study published on 25 February Nature communication, Researchers tied the nature of red tint of Mars for a particular species of iron minerals. Although it is never doubt that Mars had a result of interacting on red iron and water, how and when it was actually happened has proved to be more elusive.
All about iron
The new study indicates ferhydrates as a criminal for the color of Mars. It is basically rich in water. Therefore, researchers feel that the planet was first covered in water for a decent time, then stuck to the soil filled with iron for a long time, while the planet dried up. The study also shows that the atmosphere of early Mars can be more colder than our idea.
“The presence of ferhydrite tells us something specific about the previous atmosphere of Mars,” says Adomas Valentinas, the lead writer on postdorel fello and paper at Brown University. According to Valentinas, the mineral is usually formed under cool conditions where the environment has almost neutral pH and the conditions for oxidation are ripe – a certain type of chemical reaction that, in the case of iron, creates rust. Essentially, “It suggests that instead of warm conditions, the early Mars experienced a cold and wet atmosphere,” says Valentinas.
The previous model supported the atmosphere of dry oxidation of iron in hematit form. That is, red color was formed by exposure to atmospheric oxygen. The iron in a ferhydrite form suggests long-term water requirement to create that rich, orange-red color.
gathering data
The data of several missions was used to detect ferhydrates, including ESA’s trace gas orbiter, NASA’s Mars Honor Orbitter, and several rovers. Various iron oxides (iron that are in contact with oxygen) close different wavelengths of light. By combining data in these missions, Valentinas and their colleagues were able to find out that the ferhydrite martian is a strong species of iron on the surface.
Data also indicates that ferhydrites may dominate the martian surface about 3 billion years ago. Valentinas says that during this time, acute volcanic activity on Mars was probably triggering the melting of ICES on the surface. This period, called the hepatic period, is also known for its intense flood, and the twist point in the history of the planet is marked where the surface water began to disappear.
“Time aligns with a period when Mars was transitioning from its first, wet state into its current desert environment,” says Valentinas.
A lot to learn
There is not much doubt that Mars was once covered in the body of water. But these are other factors that we are still keeping together – how deep the sea was, how long they lasted, how broad they were, and much more. This study tells us that Mars may not have such a child place, and was cold during the hepperian period. Understanding the conditions in which ferhydrite was formed will help join the process by which the water evaporated. And the loss of the oceans of Mars is also associated with the loss of its environment, as well as both can be due to the same procedures.
Valentinas says that the Mars sample returns mission can provide the important evidence required to detect the role of ferhydrite in the color of Mars, as well as how it is formed. It can also tell us about Mars as a place that was probably held as well as a once as well, if it ever originated.
“If the ferhydrite is confirmed in the returned martian samples, the stable isotopes of iron, hydrogen and oxygen will be of special interest,” they say. Isotopes are only the “taste” of elements, with their nucleus in the same number of protons, but have different number of neutrons. “These measurements can reveal the water temperature in which ferhydrite was formed, the source of water (whether meteorite or sea), and potentially even the microbes played a role in the formation formation.”
